


Ghosts in the unconventional sense

by EpiKatt



Series: IronStrange Week 2020 [2]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alien Technology, Aliens, Alternate Universe - Space, Angst, Fluff, Getting Together, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Nervousness, Outer Space, Technology, scifi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:54:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24890395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EpiKatt/pseuds/EpiKatt
Summary: Tony and Stephen, still sharing a ship, track down an old SOS signal with little hope of rescue. What they find isn't what they expect, and changes things between them.Ironstrange Prompt #2, TuesdayGhost/Future.Both filled.
Relationships: Tony Stark/Stephen Strange
Series: IronStrange Week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1801042
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17
Collections: IronStrange Week 2020





	Ghosts in the unconventional sense

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys like this one, and it's got a rough part dealing with some sad scenes. (That's the grief/mourning tag.) This is a continuation from the first one, as the rest are going to be. Have fun.

Stephen and Tony were a few weeks into an easy companionship when they found a ghost. However, that’s a little bit later, and can wait.

They did arrive at that space station a few days after their first encounter, and Stephen did decide to stay. Tony went and got supplies for two while Stephen stayed on board. They both knew that the alien’s wouldn’t be well received in such a crowded place. 

So Tony came back with a bunch of his favorites, as well as some of Stephen’s which came from a list he’d been sent to the HUD he had attached to his ear. 

And thus, they set off. Two days in, Tony finally admitted to Stephen that most of this lifestyle was waiting, and to find ways to combat the boredom. They’d both blushed at the accidental innuendo and moved on.

Now, nearly a month into their friendship, and after a rather lame item dropoff, they were once again waiting. Tony was draped over the pilots chair; legs hanging over the armrest and chin tucked uncomfortably against his chest. Stephen was on the floor, legs spread in front of him while he fiddled with a game console reminiscent of the  _ Game Boy,  _ or at least that’s what the data files on old Earth Tony pulled up said. 

A sudden, loud, bleeping filled the small room, making Tony jump and Stephen scowl when he lost a life in his game. 

“What’s this?” Tony muttered, swinging his body around to sit the correct way, leaning over and peering at the screen on the console, tapping the screen and swiping it up to display on the window in front. 

Stephen groaned and pulled himself off the ground, taking a few steps forward and dropping into the copilots seat to look at it as well. 

“Seems to be an SOS, similar to mine,” Stephen said, tilting his head while rubbing his goatee thoughtfully. 

“Yeah, but this one’s old enough to have a time stamp, and it’s pretty weak at this point. We’re quite close, when most SOS signals stretch far enough to take several days of travel, like yours, but the data has eroded enough that it’s only a few hours,” Tony explained, typing on the console and setting course for the ship.

“I feel like you’re simplifying this by a lot. How long does it take for data to erode on average?” Stephen asked, frowning.

Tony sighed. “From how short this signal is? I’d say it’s been around twenty year. This isn’t a rescue mission, it’s a recovery,” Tony said gravely, turning the thrusters up.

Stephen was silent for a moment, solemnly watching the stars streak past. “How long until we’re there?”

“About two hours,” he estimated, flicking the monitor in annoyance when it flickered. He brought up another window and added Star fusion core batteries to the list.

Stephen nodded. “Enough time to make dinner, then,” Stephen said, getting up and leaving the room.

Tony made sure he was out of earshot before groaning, slumping in his seat. Gods he needed release. Of any kind, really, but preferably of the sexual variety. Usually he’d go and pick up a partner at a stop, but he didn’t want to be That Guy and bring home his thing of the night and annoy Stephen with it, and since then he hadn’t had a chance, and he’d felt too uncomfortable to use his own hand with the other man on board so near, so saying he was tense was a little bit of an understatement. Even worse was that he was growing attracted to Stephen, which surely couldn’t be his fault. Close quarters and loneliness bring a bunch of unlikely people together for comfort, right?

The smell of some sort of pasta wafted into the room and he smiled slightly. Well, it wouldn’t hurt too badly to have a little crush. Especially since he didn’t know if Kruxlack had any attraction to measly humans. Well, they likely didn’t have any attractions outside their own species, as they’re constantly trying to conquer everyone else. So, Tony knew he didn’t have a chance, and he knew the crush would only grow the longer they’re together, and so he prepared himself for a long while of an empty bed. And, he thought, release of his favorite kind.

Tony fiddled around with some things on the interface he could mess with with little thought while he waited for their dinner. He eventually zoned out while staring out the window, staring quietly as they passed a nebula. He remembered his first time seeing one, he’d been little more than a toddler and his mother had set him in her lap while they passed it, he’d stared and stared and stared until they went by, and that was the moment he realized he wanted to see more.

Stephen came in a little while later with two plates, and Tony hurriedly pressed a button to bring up two bottles of water onto the console. Taking the plate eagerly, he dug in with gusto while Stephen sat and watched for a moment with an amused smirk before beginning to eat his own.

After eating about half the plate, Tony turned on a show they’d been watching, something about one of the many wars on Old Earth, and swiped it up onto the window. When they both finished, Tony took both their plates and set them on a raised part of the console, watching them disappear. “Boy am I glad I installed that.”

“Ah, yes, laziness,” Stephen mocked playfully, rolling his eyes.

“JARVIS, ETA to destination?” Tony called, glaring indignantly at Stephen.

“Twenty minutes, sir,” came the dignified reply.

“I’m going to take a quick shower, don’t break anything,” Tony said, grinning evilly at Stephen and sauntered off.

  
  


Twenty minutes later saw them docking against a decrepit looking ship, but Tony’s HUD said that it was still structurally sound and airtight. 

“Man, they don’t make them like they used to,” Tony joked, voice tinny coming from his suit, having gotten in it after his shower.

Stephen gave Tony an unamused look. Tony shrugged and sighed. “Was funny to me,” he muttered.

Once the docking was finished, the door opened and he quickly cut open the door to the other ship. In the time Stephen had been with him, he’d constructed more nanobots, and he currently had them sealing the gap between the ships to continue the airtight seal.

Walking inside, Tony could smell how stale the air was, even through the fresher air flooding from his own ship. Stephen followed closely behind him as he slowly walked further in. He went right for the rooms, finding it only had one when the hallway ended rather short. He opened the captains quarters by forcing it open, nanobots falling off him to help force it open.

Once it was open, he and Stephen slowly walked in, unsure of what they would find. They both froze, looking at the bed where two skeletons lay, very near each other. The room didn’t smell, but Tony knew it was from the ship’s filters soaking it up. There had to be far too many human remains scattered throughout the ship’s innards. He shuddered uncomfortably, suddenly feeling cold.

“What do you think happened here?” Tony asked quietly.

“Looks like a couple. Though it could easily be friends or siblings. I’m assuming they knew they were dying and lied down here to die together, romantic in a… macabre way. Since the ship still has air, best chance is they died of starvation or dehydration,” Stephen replied, voice soft.

“Would have been better if they went out like you nearly did. Oxygen deprivation is far more peaceful than starving,” Tony said with a sigh.

They both stood there for another few minutes in respectful silence before Tony nodded toward the door.

“C’mon, we need to see if they left anything for whoever found them,” he murmured, gently placing his hand between Stephen’s shoulder blades and led him out the door and into the cockpit.

They both sat down in the seats while Tony hacked into the flickering display and projected it from his HUD, looking slightly blurry against the dirty window.

_ A ragged looking green-skinned man moved away from the camera, the quality was poor, filmed from an older camera. He sat in the seat Tony was in, and a green-skinned woman was sitting in the one Stephen filled. _

_ “So, uhh, if you’re seeing this, than we’re most likely dead, and if we’re not, then we should be turning the video off right about now,” the man said tightly, letting out a harsh laugh. There was a soft “Honey…” from the lady and she placed her hand on the man’s arm gently and he sighed. _

_ “We thank you for showing up at all, even if it is too late. So instead of showing a compilation of our final hours, I’m going to show video clips from our better days, so you can see the people we used to be,” he said, turning to the woman and giving her a forced smile. _

_ “I hope you enjoy it,” the woman says quietly, kissing the man gently with a loving smile before it cut to a different scene. _

_ It showed the couple cooking dinner, the scene peaceful and quiet, the only sound coming from the grease crackling on the stove. The woman stood on her tiptoes, kissing her husband’s cheek with a smile, which he returned. _

_ It cut again to them watching something on the monitor, the woman pressed against his side with his arm around her shoulders. _

_ Another, with the man fiddling with something in the engine room, his wife doing the same thing on the other side, occasionally looking over at him to make sure he hadn’t lost a finger. _

_ Lastly, it showed them standing in front of the window, watching the nebula drift past lazily. It would have to have been just hours before they became stranded. “Beautiful, isn’t it, honey?” the woman asked, voice tinged with awe. _

_ The man just smiled lovingly down at her. “Beautiful as always,” he murmured. If she noticed what he really said wasn’t about the nebula, she didn’t say. They stood there in comfortable silence as the purples and blues finally faded. _

When the video ended, Tony realized he had tears running down his cheeks. It was cruel, what happened to the couple, they were so obviously in love. Seeing the ghosts of them, just video transcripts, made Tony feel unbearably angry. He looked over and saw Stephen in a similar boat, tears silently streaming down his face.

“Take the video with us, it’s all we can do to honor their memory,” Stephen said roughly. Tony just nodded, downloading it to his HUD. 

“Should we blow the place?” he murmured, “it’s the closest they’ll get to a proper burial and it wouldn’t feel right to scrap the ship.”

Stephen swallowed and nodded. “I’m going to wait on your ship,” he said shortly.

Tony watched him leave before pulling out some small explosives, silently spreading them throughout the ship. It felt dirty to take anything, so everything stayed. 

He was back on his ship and flying away when he detonated the explosives, watching the ship throw metal pieces everywhere with a small burst of flame before the oxygen was burned up and it went out. The both of them watched silently. It was a while before either spoke, and when someone did break the silence, it was Stephen,

“I have feelings for you,” he stated simply.

Tony’s throat suddenly felt tight and his face hot. “Is this, um, the right time for that?” he asked lamely.

“I think this is a perfect time, the video has reminded me of how little time we have, and how it could be cut short, and I’d rather not waste time pussyfooting around each other,” Stephen explained, turning to Tony and tilting his head expectantly.

Tony swallowed. “Okay,” was all he could manage.

Stephen was obviously stifling a smile. “ ‘Okay’?” he parroted.

“I have feelings for you too and think we should be together,” Tony said in a rush, causing Stephen to laugh suddenly, making Tony unsure all of a sudden.

Stephen quickly caught the look Tony was giving. “I’m not mocking you, it’s just really funny to me how much we sound like teenagers, or the ones shown in the videos you put on,” he mused.

After a moment of thinking, Tony had to agree and laughed with Stephen. 

“What should our first date be?” Tony finally asked.

“I saw you looking at that nebula from earlier. We could go back, honor their memory as well. I’ll cook something,” Stephen suggested.

Tony fell into the captain’s chair, face slightly pink when he realized that Stephen had noticed and  _ cared  _ enough to use that information.

“Sure,” he said, smiling. “It’s a date.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a kudos if you've made it this far because it fuels my Gamer Rage. Hope you're liking this little au, scifi has been taking me over lol.


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